The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In various instances, plant researchers cultivate thousands or tens of thousands of small plots with numerous different seed types, each seed type having different genotypic and/or phenotypic traits and/or selected treatment applied thereto. A field can comprise a plurality of plots and each plot is typically planted with a single selected seed type such that each plot is planted with different seed type. Accordingly, as the breeder plants one plot and proceeds to a subsequent plot, the seed being planted must be changed such that a different seed type will be planted in the subsequent plot and the seed planted in the prior plot will cease to be planted.
Often automated and/or mechanized planting systems (e.g., automated planters) comprise automated seed meters that are used to plant a large number of plots, with each plot being planted with a respective selected seed type. The seed meters are generally operable to precisely drop seeds at specific intervals into a respective furrow as the planter moves down a respective row. Precise and even seed metering is crucial to optimizing and/or testing the yield produced by a particular seed type in a research growing operation. Particularly, when moving between plots, the seed meters of such automated planters must cease planting one seed type, isolate or discharge that seed type from the system, and then begin planting the subsequent selected seed type in the subsequent plot. Various known seed meters can accomplish the seed switching procedure, e.g., the steps listed above, in a variety of ways, but none are designed to perform procedure rapidly. Particularly, current seed meters require slow planting rates in research setting in order to ensure highly-accurate placement of several different seed types in a large plant research setting. For example, some known planters are capable of reliably metering seeds while moving through the field at four to five miles per hour, but are unable to reliably switch to a new type of seed and maintain type separation between plots without slowing the planter down to approximately half that speed.
In commercial growing operations, this is not normally a problem, as several acres of one seed type are typically planted before it becomes necessary to slow or pause the planter to switch to another seed type. Even if the operator must wait or slow planting for a few seconds a dozen times in a large commercial field, the overall loss in efficiency is typically negligible, and so there is little motivation to improve these systems.
However, plant researchers attempting to test the performance of large numbers of seed types commonly plant dozens or hundreds of different seed types per acre in separated plots. Operators planting these research testing fields waste a much greater portion of their overall planting time waiting for planters with current seed meters to switch out seed types. Even if operators must wait only a few seconds between each research plot, the delays rapidly add up in a large breeding program where thousands or tens of thousands of such plots are planted. Furthermore, it is common that plots of separated seed are relatively short (e.g., less than 30 feet) that the most efficient way to plant such a research testing configuration using current meters is to plant the entire field at the reduced planting rate to accommodate the inefficiency of the respective meter to switch seeds. This reduced planting rate results in dramatic increases in operating costs, labor, ergonomic issues and cost of product development.